Community Work Programme

The Community Work Programme (CWP) is a government programme aimed at alleviating poverty and curbing unemployment.

Seriti Institute is one of the Implementing Agents (IAs) for the Community Work Programme (CWP). Seriti Institute piloted the programme from its inception in 2008. The programme is implemented in a defined local area, usually a ward or municipal area called a site. These sites are targeted for and setup in the most economically marginalised areas where unemployment is rife and sustainable work opportunites are not forthcoming.

It is designed as a safety-net for unemployed and underemployed people of working age, and offers access to a minimum level of regular work per month and provides a baseline in terms of income protection. The CWP is meant to complement – and not to replace – the existing livelihood strategies of unemployed and underemployed people. It is intended to be an ongoing programme, with participants moving in and out of it as their needs changes.

One hundred days of work per year.

Each CWP participant has an opportunity to work 2 days a week or 8 days a month which translates to 100 days of work per year.

By the community, for the community.

What makes CWP different is that work is done by participants for the benefit of the broader community. All CWP work must be deemed ‘useful work’ which serves to improve the surroundings and/or quality of life of the people living in that community. The community in turn plays a vital role in deciding what work needs to be done, to uplift their community. Here are some examples of the types of ‘useful work’ undertaken by CWP to date:

Setting up of communal food gardens

Maintaining food gardens for economically vulnerable households

Erecting water tanks for local community-based agriculture and domestic use

Cutting grass in dangerous areas

Filling in of hazardous dongas

Maintaining roads, pavements, public parks, churches, graveyards and water pipelines

Doing repairs around local schools and clinics

Running programmes and performing charitable work for orphans, vulnerable children, people living with disabilities and the elderly

Setting up of crèches and day care centres for local children

Conducting school patrols to keep children safe from violence and crime

Implementing initiatives like security guard work, where rapes and other gender-based forms of violence are a challenge

Seriti Institute is proud to say that we are an Implementing Agent of the Community Work Programme under the auspices of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA).